Can the weather cause earthquakes?
To look for the cause of an earthquake, you typically start by looking for a point underground. As centuries of seismic studies have shown, the collision of tectonic plates and the movement of underground faults and fissures are the main triggers of an earthquake.
But now, in a striking new study, scientists have concluded that certain weather events, essentially heavy rainfall or snow, can also trigger some earthquakes, or at least contribute significantly to their occurrence.
The study is the work of a team including, among others, William Frank, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, and Qing-Yu Wang, from MIT and now at the Grenoble Alpes University in France.
Frank, Wang and their colleagues have determined that episodes of heavy snow and rain likely contributed to a swarm of earthquakes in northern Japan in recent years. To the best of its authors' knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that climatic conditions could initiate some earthquakes.
The aforementioned series of earthquakes was recorded on the Japanese Noto Peninsula.
Since late 2020, hundreds of small earthquakes have struck that area of Japan. Unlike a typical seismic sequence, which begins with a main shock that gives way to a series of aftershocks before dying out, the Noto seismic activity is a "seismic swarm," a pattern of multiple, continuous earthquakes without an obvious main shock. , nor a normal seismic trigger.
The research team found that such anomalous seismic activity in the region is surprisingly synchronized with certain changes in underground pressure, and that those changes are influenced by seasonal patterns of snowfall and other precipitation.
The study's authors suspect that this connection between earthquakes and climate may not be unique to Japan and may play a relevant role in seismology in other parts of the world.
Looking ahead, Frank, Wang and their colleagues predict that the influence of climate on earthquakes could be more pronounced due to global warming.
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